Voice PE → Play Replies on an External Media Playerer

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Hi all.

Been trying for some time to get the Voice PE to output its TTS to an external media player.

I use a Windows PC (oldschool HTPC setup) in my living room with a good sound system and wanted the output here instead of the crapy builtin speaker.

Before this i had zero knowledge about ESPHome but i have been running HA instance for 4-5 years.

I took alot of inspiration from this thread Redirect Voice PE Replies to Sonos - Community Guides - Home Assistant Community.

ChatGPT helped me all the way here with the code.

Firstly i installed HASS.Agent on my PC(called sofa) and got it working.
Then i installed ESPHome and imported the Voice PE.

Voice PE → Play Replies on an External Media Player (No Double Audio)

Goal

Build a Voice PE satellite that:

  • :microphone: Listens locally (microphone, wake word, LEDs all work normally)
  • :brain: Runs the full Assist pipeline in Home Assistant
  • :loud_sound: Plays TTS replies on an external media player (e.g. media_player.sofa)
  • :zipper_mouth_face: Does not speak locally at the same time
  • :brick: Works reliably, without race conditions or ESPHome YAML errors

In this setup, media_player.sofa is a Windows PC running Hass.Agent, exposed to Home Assistant as a media player.

The Robust Solution (Recommended)

:brain: Key Idea

Let Voice PE keep generating TTS, but:

  • Mute the local Voice PE speaker
  • Capture the generated TTS URL
  • Hand off playback to Home Assistant
  • Let HA play the reply on any media player (here: a Windows PC via Hass.Agent)

This is done using:

  • an input_text helper as a bridge
  • a Home Assistant script for playback
  • a small ESPHome override

ESPHome (Voice PE override)

What this does

  • Ducks the local mixer
  • Mutes the local Voice PE speaker
  • Saves the TTS URL into Home Assistant
  • Triggers the HA playback script
  • Restores everything afterward

ESPHome YAML (override only)

substitutions:
  name: home-assistant-voice-095a6b
  friendly_name: Home Assistant Voice 095a6b

packages:
  Nabu Casa.Home Assistant Voice PE: github://esphome/home-assistant-voice-pe/home-assistant-voice.yaml

esphome:
  name: ${name}
  name_add_mac_suffix: false
  friendly_name: ${friendly_name}

api:
  encryption:
    key: ******************

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

# ------------------------------------------------------------
# Voice PE reply redirect (NO double audio + no "blip" after idle)
#
# Home Assistant prerequisites:
# 1) Helper: input_text.voice_pe_tts_url
# 2) Script: script.voice_pe_play_reply_on_sofa
#    (reads input_text.voice_pe_tts_url and plays it on media_player.sofa)
# ------------------------------------------------------------

voice_assistant:
  # PRE-MUTE EARLY to prevent the "local starts speaking briefly then stops" issue after idle
  on_intent_progress:
    - if:
        condition:
          lambda: 'return !x.empty();'
        then:
          - logger.log:
              level: DEBUG
              format: "Redirect: pre-muting local Voice PE speaker before TTS begins."
          - media_player.volume_set:
              id: external_media_player
              volume: 0.0

  # Duck hard during TTS and ensure local speaker stays muted
  on_tts_start:
    - logger.log:
        level: INFO
        format: "Redirect: ducking local mixer + muting Voice PE speaker."
    - mixer_speaker.apply_ducking:
        id: media_mixing_input
        decibel_reduction: 51
        duration: 0s
    - media_player.volume_set:
        id: external_media_player
        volume: 0.0

  # Save the TTS proxy URL and trigger HA playback on sofa (Windows PC via Hass.Agent)
  on_tts_end:
    - logger.log:
        level: INFO
        format: "Redirect: saving TTS URL to HA helper + starting sofa playback script."
    - homeassistant.service:
        service: input_text.set_value
        data:
          entity_id: input_text.voice_pe_tts_url
          value: !lambda |-
            return x;

    - homeassistant.service:
        service: script.turn_on
        data:
          entity_id: script.voice_pe_play_reply_on_sofa

  # Restore state when pipeline is fully finished
  on_end:
    - wait_until:
        not:
          voice_assistant.is_running:
    - mixer_speaker.apply_ducking:
        id: media_mixing_input
        decibel_reduction: 0
        duration: 0s
    - media_player.volume_set:
        id: external_media_player
        volume: 1.0

I added this to script.yaml:

voice_pe_play_reply_on_sofa:
  alias: Voice PE – Play reply on sofa
  mode: restart
  sequence:
  - variables:
      url: '{{ states(''input_text.voice_pe_tts_url'') }}'
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ url.startswith(''http'') }}'
  - target:
      entity_id: media_player.sofa
    data:
      media_content_id: '{{ url }}'
      media_content_type: music
    action: media_player.play_media

Added this to configuration.yaml:

input_text:
  voice_pe_tts_url:
    name: Voice PE last TTS URL
    max: 255

Why This Works (and Why Others Fail)

  • :heavy_check_mark: No unsupported ESPHome YAML
  • :heavy_check_mark: No direct media_player hijacking
  • :heavy_check_mark: No timing race conditions
  • :heavy_check_mark: Works with any HA media player:
    • Sonos
    • Music Assistant
    • Chromecast
    • Windows PC via Hass.Agent
  • :heavy_check_mark: Voice PE remains fully functional as a satellite

Voice PE still believes it is playing locally — but it’s muted — while Home Assistant takes over actual playback.

Result

You end up with a clean, professional Voice Assistant setup:

  • One device listens
  • Another device speaks
  • No echo
  • No hacks
  • No flakiness

This is effectively how commercial multi-room assistants work — just implemented with full local control.

If you want, this approach can easily be extended to:

  • restore exact previous volume
  • room-aware replies
  • multi-room announcements
  • Music Assistant ducking
  • LED sync with external playback

But as-is, this is already a production-grade solution.

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